Mourning Cloak / Nymphalis antiopa
Mourning Cloaks may be the longest-lived butterflies, living 10 – 12 months. Mourning Cloak butterflies overwinter as adults. They find shelter for the winter in tree crevices, log piles, leaf litter, and other sheltered places. Their bodies shut down, and they hibernate until early spring. Mourning cloaks are freeze-tolerant and can survive temperatures as cold as -60 °C (-76°F).
The Mourning Cloak butterfly gets its name from the traditional cloak worn when in mourning. The Latin name, Nymphalis, comes from the word nymph, and Antiopa was the daughter of Ares, the god of war, in Greek mythology.
Mourning Cloak Butterfly Diet
The Mourning Cloak butterfly is one of many species that rarely visit flowers for nutrition. The Mourning Cloak butterfly seldom drinks nectar, instead, it drinks the liquid from fermenting fruit, aphid honeydew and tree sap. Mourning Cloaks prefer the sap from maples, oaks, poplars, and birch. The males also drink from mud puddles.
Mourning Cloak Caterpillar Host Plant(s)
willows (salix spp.), poplars (Populus spp.), birches (Betula spp.), hackberries (Celtis spp.), and sometimes maples (Acer spp.), wild roses (Rosa spp.), and spireas (spiraea spp.).
Other butterflies in this blog that have trees and shrubs as their host plants:
~ Canadian Tiger Swallowtail ~ Viceroy
~ White Admiral ~ Eastern Pine Elfin
Mourning Cloak Butterfly Description
The upper surface of the Mourning Cloak’s wings is brownish-red with a wide, yellow-white border on the edge of the wings, with sub-marginal blue spots on both wings. Underneath, its wings are greyish brown with a dusty pale yellow-white border. When their wings are folded, they are camouflaged very well against tree bark.
The sexes are the same in appearance.
Broods/Flight: There is usually one brood per year. If spring is early, there can be two broods in a year. They fly from late April through October.
Wingspan: 5 – 8 cm (2 – 3 in)
Habitat
Mourning Cloaks are found in hardwood forests, woodland edges, along shorelines, lake shores, and along the edges of ponds and streams. They can also be found in gardens where host plants are present.
Range
In Canada, they range from the southern Yukon, through British Columbia, and across southern Canada to the Maritimes. In the US they are found in Alaska, all of the western and eastern U.S., except for the southern tip of Florida. There are sparse populations in the central USA. They also range into central Mexico and subarctic portions of Europe and Asia.
Mourning Cloak Butterfly Eggs
The eggs are a whitish colour and a teardrop shape with vertical ridges. The adult female lays her eggs in clusters, surrounding a twig of their host plant. The eggs hatch in approximately 10 – 12 days.
Mourning Cloak Caterpillar
The caterpillar is black with a row of red dots along its back. It also has black, branched spines along its body. They live and feed together. They are seldom far from their siblings. When the caterpillars feel threatened, they shake and vibrate in unison to scare away the predator. Their spines also deter predators. They go through five instars, and once they are fully grown, they travel individually to a sheltered spot away from their host plant to form a chrysalis and enter their pupa stage.
Mourning Cloak Chrysalis
When the caterpillar has found a sheltered spot to form a chrysalis, it creates a silken pad to anchor itself. The chrysalis is a spiky, yellowish brown, resembling a shrivelled leaf. In 5 – 10 days, the Mourning Cloak butterfly emerges and begins its long life as an adult.
Leave the Leaves
Reducing your lawn, growing more native plants and leaving the leaves in your garden are crucial things to do in a wildlife/butterfly garden. There are many different species of insects that shelter, develop and overwinter in leaves and leaf litter. Having leaf litter and plants beneath your trees also provides a soft landing and safe refuge for any chrysalis or caterpillars that become detached from branches or stems. Mourning Cloak butterflies may be overwintering in your leaf litter so there is yet another reason to leave the leaves in your butterfly garden!
Shelter
Mourning cloak butterflies need to find shelter for overwintering and shelter areas during the summer to hide from predators and protect themselves in bad weather. Shrubs, preferably native, and brush-piles are great shelters for butterflies.
A Butterfly Garden – is a pollinator/wildlife garden. Never use herbicides or pesticides anywhere near a butterfly garden.
Look but do not touch – please do not buy butterfly kits or chrysalis from commercial breeders or home-reared butterflies. This is cruel to butterflies, can create unfit populations and spread diseases to the wild species.
Links to find out more about plants native to your area:
https://cwf-fcf.org/en/resources/encyclopedias/native-plant-encyclopedia
https://www.wildflower.org
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